Post Christmas Juice Feast

Welcome to the January 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting:
Recovering from the Holidays

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about how their families get back to normal after the holidays are over.

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Christmas seems to be a time of indulgence and a perfectly acceptable excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast and ignore your stomach shouting “No more, please no more!!” Every year we get in to the spirit far too early, so that by the time the real event comes around we are already sick of mince pies and Christmas cake.

This year we kept our celebrations to the four days over Christmas, and we decided to make the mince pies and stolen feel more special by reserving them for much closer to Christmas. This meant that we ate a lot less than previous years over the month of December. That being said, we managed to cram in a lot over three or four days, and I felt really sluggish by the time the festivities were over.

So I started a new tradition, which I may or may not continue, (As I’m not so sure how many more Christmas’s we will actually choose to celebrate – we may knock the whole thing on the head and jet off to Bali next year instead, but that’s a subject for another post!) and this tradition is –

The post Christmas juice feast!

Yep, juice feast, not fast.

On the 27th of December I got up and drank a big glass of water, before heading down to the green grocers and buying a huge amount of fresh fruit, salad and greens, which I took home to juice up and sustain me throughout the day. Fresh juice is one of my favourite things in the world, and I can see how people go on longer detoxes feasting for days, or even weeks at a time. The difference between a water only fast and a juice feast, is that although you are on purely liquids, you are in fact taking in a vast amount of readily absorbed nutrients. With a varied supply of juices, you can get all the sustenance you actually need, hence the term feast.

The benefits to doing this, even just for one day are huge – you give your system a rest, you flood your body with goodness and vitamins, aiding your organs in coping with all that you have been putting them through and flushing out the toxins.

My two year old son also joined in with drinking his fair share of juices throughout the day, although he did eat fresh fruit alongside these, at his request. I trust him enough to know what his body needs and gave him what he asked for – mostly bananas and of course vast amounts of breast milk as usual.

I felt rejuvenated after just a day of this, although I must admit that by 9pm I was feeling incredibly hungry and decided to have a bowl of soup to fill me up. I imagine, with practice that this wouldn’t be necessary.

I found the juice feast to be just what I needed after the excesses of the festive season, to reset my body and allow me to tune in to what I really needed rather than eating for the sake of eating. I plan to make it a regular habit from now on.

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A few of my favourite juices are-

Apple and Carrot – Juice 2 carrots for every apple you use.

Cucumber – Taken straight from the fridge this is really refreshing – just chuck them in whole until you have the amount of liquid you want.

Pear and grapefruit – An acquired taste, but it has become one of my favourites! One red grapefruit to four large ripe pears and a small handful of spinach.

Could this question change your life for ever? — To get your new year off on the right footing, Mrs Green of Little Green Blog is challenging us all to love ourselves with commitment and discipline. She asks you to focus on a simple question which might just bring you back in balance…

Holiday Recovery — Meegs at A New Day talks about how the holidays can be overwhelming for a toddler, and how she’s helping her 3 year old recover.

Gemstones For Holiday Hangoverss — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama delves into the power of gemstones as an often overlooked means of dealing with the holiday letdown.

Getting back to Healthy — Bess at A Warrior Mom talks about the struggle of getting young ones back to eating healthy after several days to weeks of getting more candy and sweets than normal for the holidays and gives some suggestions on how to get them back to eating healthy in the new year.

The Java Monkey On My Back — Christy at Eco Journey in the Burbs realizes it is time to kick her cup of Joe habit as a first step toward detoxing.

Minimalist Holidays — Jorje of Momma Jorje doesn’t find much need for recovery after her minimalist version of the holidays.

Do something for you — Lauren at Hobo Mama urges you to find a silly and indulgent reward of me-time — and she has hers.

do we recover? — Kenna at Million Tiny Things wonders what recovery really means in the context of the tragedies of this past holiday season.

37 Easy Ways to Save Money — Shannon at GrowingSlower is sharing these money-saving tips to help get your budget back on track after the holidays.

A Two Year Old’s Resolutions — That Mama Gretchen is putting the holidays behind her with a spin on traditional resolutions — New Year’s goals for her two-year-old! Sound crazy? Read on for an explanation!

Fresh Awakening — For Luschka at Diary of a First Child, the new year has coincided with a return to restful nights. With sleep, she’s found new directions in life, but while she can’t make too many changes to her life right now, she’s inspired and excited about the future.

Detoxing’ Your Toddler After the Holidays — Does your family suffer side effects from the holidays? Join Christine from African Babies Don’t Cry to learn how she detoxed herself and her toddler off the treats and festivities of the season.

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10 thoughts on “Post Christmas Juice Feast”

The pear and grapefruit sounds *divine*, and I probably wouldn’t have any competition in drinking it. Thanks for the reminder to do some more juicing – it is such a great way to get some needed nutrients!
~Dionna @ CodeNameMama.com